Thursday, August 18, 2011

Awesome Architecture: Dubai

With Kingdom Tower in Saudi Arabia set to overtake the Burj Dubai as the world's tallest building when completed, now is a good time to look with fondness on Dubai, the city that is/was capitalism on steroids.
Sadly, as amazing as Dubai is, it isn't as amazing as it wanted to be. Thanks to the worldwide economic since 2008, many of these visionary dreams are in limbo, and may never be made into reality.

The photos and much of this information is from the Website Dubai Is Nuts, which has even more amazing pictures and info on them. Updated info is courtesy of Wikipedia.

The Dubai Waterfront. When completed it will become the largest waterfront development in the world.

The Palm Islands in Dubai. New Dutch dredging technology was used to create these massive man made islands. They are the largest artificial islands in the world and can be seen from space. Three of these Palms will be made with the last one being the largest of them all.

Upon completion, the resort will have 2,000 villas, 40 luxury hotels, shopping centers, movie theaters, and many other facilities. It is expected to support a population of approximately 500,000 people. It is advertised as being visible from the moon.

The World Islands. 300 artificially created islands in the shape of the world. Each island will have an estimated cost of $25-30 million.

The Burj al-Arab hotel in Dubai. The worlds tallest hotel. Considered the only '7 star' hotel and the most luxurious hotel in the world. It stands on an artificial island in the sea.

Hydropolis, the world's first underwater hotel. Planned to be entirely built in Germany and then assembled in Dubai, it is currently in limbo.

The Burj Khalifa, formerly named The Burj Dubai. Construction completed by 2008. At a height of over 800 meters, it is the world's tallest building. It is almost 60% taller than the the previous tallest building, the Taipei 101.

Nakheel Tower, formerly The Al Burj. Planned centerpiece of the Dubai Waterfront. If completed it will take over the title of the tallest structure in the world from the Burj Dubai. Proposed height for the tower has ranged from 1000 meters to 1600 meters (nearly a mile high.) Currently the project is in limbo.

The Burj al Alam, or The World Tower. Upon completion it will rank as the world's highest hotel, and at 510 meters it will be a meter taller than Taipei 101.

The Trump International Hotel & Tower, currently in limbo.

Dubailand. Currently, the largest amusement park collection in the world is Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, which is also the largest single-site employer in the United states with 58,000 employees. Dubailand will be twice the size.

Dubailand will be built on 3 billion square feet (107 miles^2) at an estimated $20 billion price tag. The site will include a purported 45 mega projects and 200 hundred other smaller projects.

Dubai Sports City. A huge collection of sports arenas located in Dubailand.

The Dubai Mall, the largest shopping mall in the world with over 9 million square feet of shopping and 1200 stores.

Ski Dubai, which is already open, is the largest indoor skiing facility in the world. This is a rendered image of another future indoor skiing facility that is being planned.

The UAE Spaceport (not technically in Dubai, but close enough to attract Dubai tourism) would be the first spaceport in the world if construction ever gets under way...